Tom P.C Lui 🚀

Wealthsimple Makes History as First Canadian Fintech to Join Swift Network Wealthsimple has become the first Canadian fintech and second non-bank globally to gain direct membership in the SWIFT global financial messaging network, enabling faster and more transparent international wire transfers for its clients. The Toronto-based firm will offer real-time tracking of wire transfers across 11,000+ institutions worldwide, addressing the clunky, expensive nature of traditional cross-border payments. Membership unlocks high-value transactions like escrow payments and brokerage funding, complementing its Wise partnership for retail transfers. VP Hanna Zaidi highlighted the security and engineering rigor required. Full service launches this spring post-technical integration. Read more: https://lnkd.in/d4nzK-XM #Wealthsimple #SWIFT #FintechCanada #CrossBorderPayments

3

Everyone loves saying BNPL boosts conversion, but almost nobody asks the real question: does the math actually work in Canada, for the lenders and for the brands, or are we all just eating extra fees to make checkout screens look cooler? I went deep into the numbers and the story is a lot more complicated than the marketing decks make it sound. The Canadian BNPL market is growing insanely fast. Around $2B in 2023, projected to grow 30–35%+ annually this decade. Providers usually charge merchants somewhere around 3–6% plus a per-transaction fee, and the common claim is “20–30% higher conversion” when BNPL is turned on. That’s the pitch: pay more than a credit card, get more orders. But on the lender side, BNPL isn’t some magical margin machine. Global research shows the platforms still struggle with profitability because of high risk costs, funding costs, and the overhead of managing late payments. Even though default percentages can look better than credit cards, the volume of late payments is massive, and it takes real infrastructure to stay afloat. It’s not free yield - it’s a risk business that only works at scale. For brands, the math gets interesting. Let’s simplify it. Say your AOV is $150 with 50% gross margin. If you stick with cards at ~2% fees, your net after payment fees on 100 orders is around $7.2k. Turn on BNPL at a 6% fee and assume you get the 20% uplift -120 orders instead of 100 -you end up at ~$7.9k net. So you’re ahead about 10%. Not bad. But drop that margin. If you’re selling in a 15–20% margin category, those BNPL fees can wipe out almost the entire profit on an order. Suddenly the “boost in conversion” actually burns money. BNPL is incredible for high-margin, emotional categories (beauty, apparel, furniture), and questionable for thin-margin products. There’s also the consumer stress piece that Canada really hasn’t priced in yet. Multiple studies show heavy BNPL users often have several payments due at once across multiple providers. Regulators globally are paying attention because stacked BNPL obligations don’t show up cleanly in traditional credit reporting. Banks in a few countries are already treating heavy BNPL usage as a red flag in underwriting. So is BNPL worth it? I think it depends entirely on how you use it. It’s not a universal growth hack. It’s more like a performance channel. It works when you know your true margin by SKU, you’ve actually run an A/B test on conversion uplift, and you limit BNPL to products where the economics make sense. It absolutely does not work when brands slap it on every SKU without knowing whether the incremental revenue actually beats the incremental fee. If you’re running a brand, the real question is not “Should we offer BNPL?” It’s: “On which products, at what margins, and at what measured uplift does BNPL actually increase profit?” That’s the part nobody talks about. #ecommerce #BNPL #fintech #payments #Shopify #Canada #retail #DTC

4

Vancouver has one of the toughest lending landscapes in Canada, especially for new applicants. Most banks rely heavily on credit history, not income potential. That’s why so many capable newcomers get rejected, even with stable jobs. 💡 Tip: Look beyond banks. Tools like https://lnkd.in/drxyj-f5 connect you with lenders who consider more than your credit score — like your current earnings and savings behavior. Vancouver may be expensive, but access to fair lending shouldn’t be. try https://lnkd.in/dZ9amfj8 today.

4

BC Tech members Trulioo and Google are joining forces to advance trusted digital agent payments. The partnership brings Trulioo’s identity verification expertise to Google’s AP2 initiative, creating a secure framework for autonomous, agent-led transactions. Read more. https://bit.ly/3Y0IHCw

2